


The Huntress

by endoftheziam



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Greek Mythology
Genre: Artemis - Freeform, Bear - Freeform, Death, F/M, Forbidden Love, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Huntresses, Love, Major character death - Freeform, The Hunt, Tragedy, goddess of the hunt - Freeform, orion constellation, take on artemis and orion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23195206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endoftheziam/pseuds/endoftheziam
Summary: My take on the myth of Artemis and Orion. Been wanting to do a version of it for a while, so I hope y'all like it! I wrote this at like 3 am two weeks ago.
Relationships: Artemis/Orion (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14
Collections: Greek Mythology





	The Huntress

**Artemis and Orion**

“I am focused. I will not give up.”

“Then what is he to you?”

She looked down. “He is a friend.”

“He is a distraction.” Calliope struck her across the shoulder, hard enough that she cringed away. “Have I not told you how important it is to keep yourself guarded? How unwise and disastrous it is to trust?”

“He will not hurt me.”

“Orion will do what they all have done. What do you have as evidence?”

“I—He—”

“He has shown up. As is his sentence, yes?” Calliope’s dark eyes were shadowed with disappointment and compassion. “He is your charge.”

Artemis looked at her hands, busted with scars and calluses. Hands that, so many times, had turned away any lovers. They’d want her beauty, the power that sang through her veings, but with one look at her hands, they all stepped away.

No one wanted someone who lived by that much pain.

Except he did.

A streak of red through his hair. A glint of gold in his eyes, that wicked bloodlust that curled across his face.

There were times on the hunt, when she’d see him next to her, matching her stride for stride, never seeming to have the need to best her, never seeming to feel like he was lesser because she led, where she thought too many foolish, hopeful things, things unworthy of the Hunt.

_I have always been told I am too much._ Artemis thought, the memories of her past lovers shadowing her vision…

Antiope, who had stolen a kiss just before disappearing, claiming the noble needs of her kingdom. Claiming that Artemis’ heart was too wild to be tamed, even though it had been, even though part of it had broken to see her go…

Nereus, who had disappeared into the sea with a trident in hand, the water curling around her ankles in farewell. He’d shared a lingering look and she’d thought it meant something, lost in his sea-green eyes…

She’d prayed to her sister, Aphrodite, over and over again, until the goddess had appeared, her expression contrite but firm.

“You must stop clouding my ears with your prayers. It is beneath you.”

Artemis ignored her, for her heart felt like it would never be anything but broken. “How do you make them love you?” _How do you make them stay?_

“They are not made to love,” Aphrodite had said. “They just _are.”_

“And what am I?” 

“You.” Aphrodite’s lovely eyes had moistened, her gaze turned pitying and cloying, like a flowery perfume. “You are not made for them. You are too much for a single heart.”

Artemis looked at the ground, a single tear splashing onto the forest floor. “So what do I have?”

“You have what you have always had. You are the Huntress. You have the rush of the kill, the women of the Hunt, the moon. The prayers and devotion of so many who would give anything to be like you. Be glad that you are not so shackled, Artemis; so many mortals would give anything not to love the way you so desperately want.”

“But what if I want more? What if I _am _loving?”__

____

____

Aphrodite paused for a moment, her lovely brow furrowed. Then she disappeared. Over the wind, soft as a lover’s whisper, Artemis heard the last whisper of her sister’s advice, “You must learn to be content with what Zeus has given you.”

Calliope glared at Artemis through narrowed eyes. “He does not mean this much to you.” She said. “You are not capable of it.”

“I am.” Artemis clenched her fist over her heart.

Calliope sighed. “You have thought so a thousand times. Go after your prey, Huntress. Fulfill your destiny. This will all be forgotten soon." 

“I will not.”

“You will—” Calliope smiled knowingly, “if you hope to best Apollo.”

Her brother materialized, his roguish grin making his eyes twinkle. Even as she watched, he shifted and glimmered, like sunlight.

“Unless you’re too heartbroken and want to forfeit our contest.” Apollo slung his quiver from his shoulder and examined the fletching of an arrow idly. “It would save us time.”

“You underestimate me as always, Brother.” Artemis sneered, the questions temporarily forgotten. She was the Huntress, and no one dared question her. “Name your terms.”

“The bear at the opposite end of this island.” Apollo said. “You take it first, and you win.”

Artemis drew her bow. “It is only a matter of time, Brother.”

They bowed to each other, holding eye contact.

. And as one, the twins raced into the moonlit forest.

A silvery arrow arched through the air, piercing the bear through the eye. It lurched where it stood, then fell with a crash, releasing an almighty, defiant roar.

Artemis slid into place next to it, another arrow already leveled at its head. “The victory is mine, Brother!” she shouted. “I think I’ll steal the Sun for a few months, see what the humans think of an endless night.”

She turned to see if Apollo was listening, but he was gone.

Artemis turned back around, and her heart caught in her throat.

There was no contrite Apollo, coming to offer her some type of boon for her victory.

In the trees, none of her Huntresses descended from the boughs to cheer their goddess.

They watched from their perches, each with a remarkably sad expression, as though at the deathbed of a friend. The most mournful of all was Calliope, who finally shimmied down from a tree and knelt at Artemis’ feet. “My Lady.” She said. “I am so sorry.”

“I don’t—”

The bear groaned, and then it shimmered, like a mirage. It shifted, and suddenly it was not a reddish-brown mass of fur, but smooth, naked brown skin, with a tuft of long, reddish brown hair—

“Orion?” Artemis dropped to her knees, the shock spreading ice through her veins. She reached out with her magic, but her arrows had been designed with godly power, and there was nothing that could heal their wounds.

“Orion?” Artemis choked out his name again, and he groaned, his eye a mess of blood and gore.

“Artemis.” He whispered. “Please.”

“This is all my fault.” Artemis said. “I—the competition.”

“You didn’t know.” Orion turned his remaining eye on her. “Can you heal me?”

“No.” Artemis shook her head.

“Can anyone?”

Artemis looked up to the sky, but all that greeted her was a single lightning bolt, illuminating the sky for a moment, then plunging it back into darkness. “This is your fate.” She said bitterly. “It cannot be changed.”

“I know.” Orion said.

“You know?”

“Yes. I—did terrible things. When I was mortal. I lied, I stole, I killed. Just to get a few more morsels of—nothing. I did it all for the Hunt.”

Artemis looked at his hand. It had already turned pale, but she took it anyway, pressed it to her lips. “You—you mean a great deal to me. Your debt is forgiven.”

“Only debt—was to love you.” Orion whispered.

“You—”

“I love you, Artemis.” Blood was sticking to Orion’s lips now, he spat it out before continuing. “I know it was my task to hunt beside you. I know that I am only a mortal, punished to serve beside you.”

“I love you, Orion. There is another way—”Artemis squeezed his hand between her own. W"I could keep you--please!"

“To hunt with you.” He gulped. “But—”

“I do not love my handmaidens.” Artemis whispered. “Not like you. I am sure that Zeus would permit it—”

“I cannot spend an eternity by your side, never truly being yours. Always a breath away from Zeus’ whim.”

The air crackled, and Orion coughed. “He would not allow me happiness, Artemis. I do not deserve it.”

“There must be some other way!” Artemis looked up at the sky again. “PLEASE! I LOVE HIM.”

But the heavens were silent.

“The sky will not help me remember you.” Artemis said. She looked at Calliope, who nodded as she continued, her voice swelling with power. “You will not hunt alongside us, to be one with the night, because you must be more than that for me. Because I love you, and you love me. And it breaks all the rules that I can love this much, be loved in return; it defies all the laws of the gods and the heavens.” She felt a liquid, silver warmth coiling inside her stomach.

Without thinking, she let it pour out over Orion, that silver power, whispering over his body, glowing as it made contact, encasing him like blanket.

“I am the goddess of the Hunt and the moon. And you have turned the tides for me.” Artemis spoke louder, her power magnifying her voice. Around her, the night had turned to hushed silence. Even Calliope and the handmaids had taken a few steps back in awe.

“And I refuse to be separated from you forever. Mortal, immortal, there is one constant that even the lightning cannot sway.”

The lightning roared around her, and the wind picked up, but she ignored it.

“Orion, I will meet you in the stars.” Artemis closed her eyes, and the power exploded, a swirl of silver and deep blue that swept them all into a whirlwind.

When Artemis opened her eyes, it was to see a clear sky.

With a new, perfectly drawn constellation of a hunter.

“Orion,” she whispered.

There was a soft breeze, and suddenly the warmth of breath on her cheek. “On clear nights, I am beside you.” Orion whispered. “On dark nights, I watch over you. And though time may crumble the world and the Sun may no longer rise, I will guide you through this endless night, my Huntress.”

“To know that you can love is to love and be loved in return.” Artemis whispered back, sealing it with a kiss.

And so the Huntress and her lover stayed, until dawn blotted the stars from the sky.


End file.
